Abstract Resistance
by Red Tale
Summary: SAINW. With Donatello gone, Casey and Splinter dead, and the other ninja turtles broken in spirit and body, if April is going to stop Shredder she's going to need help.


A/N: This is a story I've wanted to write since first watching Same As It Never Was and wondering why April, Casey, Splinter and the Turtles didn't turn for help from the millions of people who must of hated (and feared) Shredder as he took over the country and it no longer became a battle of honor among themselves. I've only seen the entire episode once so some details might be sketchy, but at some point April built a resistance party, and this is my idea of how it came together, too late to save our heroes but maybe not too late to save the world.

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"50 off Italian leather shoes", April called, her voice wavering. This was a brave step, a very brave step that could cost her her life. For the moment there were no foot soldiers around, and hopefully the Shredder did not have a shoe fetish she was unaware of.

A middle age woman walked by, giving the leaflet a quick glance, her face puckering up in confusion at the abstract art April had chosen for a graphic. It had nothing to do with shoes, and everything to do with revolution. But the women didn't know that much about abstract art, she only knew that it had nothing to do with shoes, and decided her brain couldn't handle it, so she left the leaflet in April's hands.

Had she picked up the leaflet and read the other side she would have learned just how much it had to do with revolution.

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**_There were two kinds of people in this world Shredder had forged, those who read and those who didn't. There was no law against the written language, nor was it ever officially discouraged. Schools still taught children the alphabet even if the public schools were more abysmal than ever. And most people could read enough to do grocery shopping, follow simple directions, laugh at a bumper sticker, order at a restaurant, ect. Anyone who wanted to read more they could, there was no official law against spending all day in a library memorizing Shakespeare sonnets and researching the Enlightenment for fun, it was just…weird. So weird that most libraries had closed, the only ones still open in these times were national collections in government offices or those at colleges, there were after all still doctors and lawyers, they needed to read while they were students. _**

**_In these times you not only didn't need to read much, you wouldn't want to. Because the more you knew…the harder life would be. _**

_**But there is one thing you can always depend on people to read – a leaflet.**_

**_And a leaflet offers additional advantages: it's cheap to make, April even had access to an ANTIQUE KODAK VERIFAX COPIER with enough ink to last about 10,000 copies. Getting that much paper was a problem, in addition to gathering spare sheets of paper she saved money and occasionally ran off 500 innocent sales flyers at a copier, than printed on the back of those at home. _**

**_A leaflet was anonymous, although as a known underground and one of Shredder's oldest living enemies she was probably high on the list of suspects. _**

_**The biggest advantage to the leaflet was that April could do it herself. Because for now that was all she had. **_

**_If she allowed her mind to sink into self-wallowing depths, she would wish that Leo or Raph had disappeared instead of Donatello. Donatello would have had the discipline to stick by her, more than even Michelangelo, and he was the only one of the four of them whom she could imagine easing the ache left by Casey's-_**

_**Well, that's why she didn't let her mind go there. She had to stay focused on the reality she lived in, or she would never be able to change it.**_

**_Michelangelo was mired in grief right now, but he had strength and courage that would come to bear once she had gathered people around them. So that's what she needed to do. And maybe a resistance movement among thousands of people who likely had also lost loved ones through the Shredder's reign would bring Leo and Raph around as well, and out of their internal conflict. Then they had a chance._**

**_Part of the problem with the anonymousness of her leaflets is she had no way to sum up what people thought of them, what secret conversations were carried on in private homes among people she may never meet. She had set about creating public opinion for the last six months now she needed to actually gather these people together and make plans to overthrow Shredder. _**

_**But how to gather them secretly? **_

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She didn't have to wait long. The next passer by was a teenage girl whose eyes immediately latched onto the graphic.

"50 off Italian Leather Shoes?", April asked hopefully, handing a flyer out.

"Is that Jackson Pollack's work?" the young woman inquired.

"Why yes. Are you an art major?"

"No, I just…like to read." she admitted shyly.

April immediately thrust a handful of leaflets into her hands.

"Pass these out and go to the east side docks. I'll meet you there", she whispered, than turned and ran before the girl could respond, hoping she hadn't just made a mistake.

That night they had twenty people, mostly women. It was a start, but not enough. The Shredder had an entire army, some ninja's, some just police. And he had an entire society.

If only they had started doing this earlier.


End file.
